Drug sniffer K-9 locked in hot car for 5 days
Windsor, NSW (AU)Incident Date: Thursday, Mar 22, 2007
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Joshua Peterson
A Corrective Services sniffer dog left locked in a car for five days was trying to dig its way out when it died of heat stroke.
Rookie, a black and white border collie, would have died within two hours of being left as temperatures soared to 50 degrees celsius in the vehicle, Windsor Local Court heard today.
The court found First Class Corrective Services Officer Joshua Peterson guilty of aggravated animal cruelty.
Peterson had been told to get the dog out of the car separately by two other officers but had "forgotten", Magistrate Glenn Bartley found.
Peterson had been left in charge of Rookie when its full-time handler Ellen Forsyth had gone interstate on March 22 this year.
It was Forsyth who, upon her return on March 27, discovered the body of Rookie, still in his cage, in the back of her departmental station wagon, parked in John Morony Corrective Services Facility near Windsor.
She sobbed in court today as the evidence was heard.
Rookie's nose was pressed right into the back corner of the cage and there were signs he had desperately tried to escape the overwhelming heat, the court heard.
Peterson had argued that he was not told by anyone to move, and that he did not realise Rookie was in th vehicle.
He further argued that the tailgate had been left closed - Corrective Services protocol is to leave it open when a dog inside.
But Magistrate Bartley said he believed the evidence from witnesses who had seen it shut.
He said it was clear the death was the result of a mistake, but an unreasonable one.
Magistrate Bartley accepted the mistake was probably due to the high volume of work Peterson had that day, including looking after 20 dogs.
"It was unreasonable as a professional on duty for him to forget about Rookie," he said.
"Until March 22, 2007, the accused had an exemplary career, however on that day he lapsed."
Peterson will be sentenced on March 6, 2008. References
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